I recently purchased a pre made casserole and the instructions stated that it should be placed in a 440* oven for 55 minutes. This seems like a very hot cooking temperature to me - am I mistaken?
Thanks.

3 Answers
3

Assuming the packaging means 440°F, no, that's not that insane. Casseroles are heavy, with a lot of liquid, so it takes a lot of heat to heat them up, especially if this is a frozen premade casserole. It is on the high side, so you might want to make sure it's not browning too much on the top (cover with foil to shield if necessary) or burning on the bottom. You can always reduce the heat partway through if you have to; it'll just take longer.

Except 440 is such an odd temperature to specify; most recipes in F would specify 450.
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SAJ14SAJFeb 4 '14 at 1:40

@SAJ14SAJ Yup, definitely, but it seems more likely that it's a typo of 450 than 350, so worth answering based on what's in the question. (And I doubt it's meant to be 440C/825F!)
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Jefromi♦Feb 4 '14 at 5:21

I'd be worried to cook a frozen casserole at a temperature over 400...Seems likely the outside would get dry and unpleasant by the time the inside got hot. I'd be more likely to stick to 350/325.
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SatanicpuppyFeb 4 '14 at 15:41

@SAJ14SAJ, 440F is an odd temperature for a recipe developed in Fahrenheit, but it's a reasonably close conversion of 225C.
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MarkFeb 18 at 8:40

I also suspect this is a typo of 350. Especially given that the casserole is frozen, there's a high likelihood of the outside burning while the inside is still cool at 450. At 350, it will all cook and warm nicely.